Morality
Morality & Creativity - Should Every Story Have a Moral and a Happy Ending? - Part 2 This is the "more"...the part 2 of: http://www.wisecreativewriting.com/2010/10/morality-creativity-should-every-story.html Morality & Creativity - Should Every Story Have a Moral and a Happy Ending? The last post ended with a serious question. Do you write what you want, or do you sacrifice your talent for the possibility of making money? If you write what you want to write, you will be content. You will be happy, and you will stand behind your work with no problem. The process of creating your dream story, with an obvious moral, will not feel like work. It will be fun, and the words will flow on to the paper without you having to force them out of your body. If you choose to write for the possibility of making money, your brain will take control of your creative process. It will police you into writing for money. Every time you try to write from the heart, your brain will be there to ask you if your words are "money-making" words. The story will not flow, and you will be frustrated as you write. It's going to feel like work, and just like work, you are going to be wishing for the end to come. The only thing that will motivate you to finish, will be the possibility of making money. If you are a true artist, that is a real bad feeling. It's always better to write from the heart. You can't go wrong with this. If you write for money, and it doesn't make money, you will be very upset. You may also feel as if you wasted your time. Write from the heart. If money comes, it comes. If it doesn't, then keep doing what you do until it does. Now, as far as doing what you do is concerned, how far do you go with that? Should you make it a point to create a story that has an obvious, thought provoking message in it? Wouldn't you be policing your brain by doing this? If you have a dream of writing a story that contains an obvious, thought provoking message, you should do it without hesitation because it is your dream. If you are deliberately trying to put a message in a story just to be different, or make a point, then I would advise against it, even if the message is a much needed one. There are a lack of movies on the market that have good messages in them. If you are a writer with a heart, you may not want to add to the collection of mayhem that already exists. Even so, it may not be a good idea to go against who you are. If you try to write a story that has a good message, it may come out bad. You may have to force yourself to write a story like this. And believe it or not, your audience will know. People are not as clueless as you think. They can tell if a story was written for a purpose other than entertainment. If you want to put a message in your writing, it would probably be better to write a non-fiction book or a script for a documentary. So, if you don't write for a purpose, what is the point of writing at all? What do you write and how do you write? http://www.wisecreativewriting.net/2010/11/morality-creativity-should-every-story.html